the very near future to tackle so many big, big, big issues that are still undecided and still on the table. martha: as mitt romney said, so many people left it on the field and worked so hard, young and old alike throughout the course of this process. we wish them all well and we will see you right back here in "america's newsroom" tomorrow. jon: we begin with this fox news alert, a winner now reported in a very tight senate race in montana, between democratic incumbent john tester and republican congressman denny reeberg. they are calling the race for senator tester a few minutes ago. the third party candidacy of dan cox took critical votes mostly from reberg. mitt romney won the state of montana but democrat john tester a first term incumbent keeps his seat in montana, that is the projection from the "associated

press." jenna: when we take a look at the make up of the house and senate this is why it's important because we have the big fiscal cliff that we are facing regardless of who is reelected president. we now know barack obama will continue for a second term. take a look at the market today, you see them down more than 2.2%. at the lowest point which is right about where we are right now, down 300 points on the dow. this is the lowest we've seen the market as far as a sell off in one day since june. a lot can happen in the next couple of hours in trading, you can see a turn around. what investors are saying right now is there is a big concern about that fiscal cliff. there is a big concern about a recession in europe, and a big concern overall about the health of the u.s. economy. of the stocks that are actually up today, and there are a few, they are related to healthcare and providing healthcare facilities, because of the healthcare law that is going into effect. so we'll keep an eye on the markets and everything that is happening now. we have brand-new stories and breaking news this hour. jon: develop shrink deeper into

president obama's historic victory. what fox news exit polls tell bus the make up of today's american voters, plus now they are stuck together, will the president and the republican-led house embrace some kind of bipartisan effort to keep us from going over that fiscal cliff? problems, like millions of jobless americans to iran's nuclear ambitions, what does the president's re-election mean for our nation's future at home and overseas? it's all "happening now." it is over, time for some election reflex and th rereflection hours after the nation voted to give president obama a second term. good morning i'm jon scott. you were up late. jenna: we are up late doing the coverage. a se interesting news night and a lot of news ahead. we have one big item checked off. we know who the next president is going to be but a lot of

uncertainties as well. jon: the president says there won't be a fiscal cliff. jenna: we can see one right now. we have to veer off. i'm jenna lee. a near sweep of the swing states propelled president obama to another four years. he edged out governor romney in the popular vote by a very, very narrow margin. the president now faces some of the big challenges we were just talking about, the so-called fiscal cliff being one. he and governor romney agree that the parties must work together going forward. >> the nation is at a critical point. at a time like this we can't have partisan bickering. we have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work. >> tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual. you elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. and in the coming weeks and

months i am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together. jenna: the president was in chicago last night. we'll go to chicago in a moment. first we start with john roberts who is live in boston where he's been traveling with the mitt romney campaign, and an empty room behind you today, john. >> reporter: it is an empty room. we feel like that final scene in ferris bueller's day off saying why are you still here, it's over go home. the romney campaign is scratching its head trying to figure out what happened yesterday. they clearly thought they had enough votes in florida, virginia, and ohio to carry things over-the-top. they were talking with their get out the vote people, who said they were getting them out to the polls and we think we can carry this off. and suddenly puff. it has to be a bitter

disappointment after six long years, the hours put in and the money spent. he dead his best not to show that in his concession speech as he appealed to his supporters to embrace the very best of america. >> we look to our parents, in the final analysis everything depends on the success of our homes. we look to job creators of all kinds, we are counting on you to invest, to hire, to step forward. and we look to democrats and republicans in government at all levels to put the people before the politics. >> reporter: it is unclear at this point whether or not governor romney will remain a leader in the republican party. the president says that he will invite him down to the white house to talk about the issues. either way, though it would appear that governor romney is likely to be the last of his generation to run for the presidency in the republican party. a lot of young guns out there, people like marco rubio, paul ryan, his running mate, chris christie, kelly ayotte and others that are probably doing hard thinking right now about

what they want to do for 2016. no question also there will be soul searching in the republican party. they lost among a group of key demographics and lost badly, and a couple of senate candidates imploded badly as well all of that prompting megan mccain to tweet a few minutes ago, and this is a quote from her. quote, keep calling like me rhinos, republicans in name only and see how many elections we keep winning, jenna. jenna: that certainly will be a topic of conversations at least over the next several days. we'll see how long that reflection takes place. john, thank you very much for that. back too john throughout the day. moving ontoore politics. jon: let's talk about some of what john was just mentioning. the exit poll results come from interviews with voters as they are leaving the polling places on election day. two big things we are watching, the critical voting block of women and the economy. when asked who would better handle the economy governor romney had the edge. fox commit polls showing he had 49% of the vote compared with

president obama's 48%. among women fox exit polls show president obama won the women's vote by a bigger gap than governor romney won the men's vote. 55% of women voting for president obama, 44% backing governor romney. 52% of men voting for governor romney, 45% for president obama. let's bring in bob cusack, managing editor of "the hill." change things happened in this election. first of all the president reelected by, well, a wider margin than some thought, especially in those swing states. the senate gets more democratic and the house gets more republican. >> very stunning that obama won, basically all the battlegrounds other than north carolina, and you knew when north carolina was not called early it was going to be a rough night for the gop. another stunner that democrats expanding their majority in the senate when they had to defend 23 seats to the republicans ten.

now john boehner will remain speaker. it looks like that margin is going to be roughly the same, maybe democrats pick up a couple of seats. there are a lot of races still to be called. but john boehner is still the top republican elected leader, and he's going to have to go against harry reid and president obama again to strike some type of deal on taxes and spending. jon: and he has has some have put it the most difficult job in washington now because he's got a substantial number of tea party supporters in his caucus who are not going to be inclined to go along with tax increases, but the president and harry reid are going to be pushing what they've been pushing throughout this election which is tax increases on high earners. >> this election was a lot about taxes and tax policy. john boehner has said we retained the house we're not going to raise taxes. there will be a lot of wrapping lynn. president obama because he won a second term has the leverage advantage. if nothing is done all the taxes

from the bush tax rates will go back to pre that 2001 law. john boehner is going to have to lead his conference. in the last congress basically they were leading him. i think he needs to grab their trust and say, you've got to trust me, because when i make a deal i need you behind whatever he strikes. but that's going to be so hard because a lot of these tea party republicans are like we have to fight, we can't strike a deal, this is the worst time to strike a deal. john boehner, you know, his job unbelievably just got harder. jon: so many questions being asked, including how republicans appeal to other demographic groups going forward. real quickly if we take a look at the age break down of those who are voting, young people 18 to well 44 went largely for president obama. from 45 on up especially in the 65 and up category they went for governor romney. i guess not a surprise, but that's the way the country looks right now. >> that's true and republicans

need to look at these stats, they need to look at what they are doing on the youth vote, especially the latino vote. ron paul never endorsed governor romney, and ron paul had a lot of young supporters, that hurt romney. they are going to have to expand how they are attracted to these dave different demographics, because those stats are troubling, and it only gets worse, as far as latino growth in 2016 texas could be a purple state. jon: bob cusack from the hill, thank you. jenna: we talked about mitt romney, about the exit polling now we'll head to chicago where the president is getting ready to head back to the white house. wendell goler is live at the place where the president held his election night victory party. cleaning up a little bit behind you there, wendell. >> reporter: you're right they partied hardy but quickly here in chicago. there used to be a stage behind me, that is all gone unlike in boston where we saw john a couple moments ago. this race was close nationally,

just a couple of percentage points separating the president and governor romney in the popular vote but it really wasn't close in the electorial college where the president got 50% more votes than mitt romney. mr. obama won the battleground states, he held a persistent narrow lead in including ohio, pennsylvania and his opponent's home states michigan and wisconsin giving him more than 300 electorial votes even before florida is counted. that allowed the party in chicago to start earlier than many analysts had predicted though it was smaller than the huge outdoor gathering in 2008. mr. obama congratulated mr. romney and paul ryan on a tough campaign. he called on democrats and republicans to abandon the partisanship blocking the deal on the deficit. they'll have to reach some kind of agreement by the end of the year to avoid tax hikes and spending cuts that could trigger another recession. neither side has tphald signaled a compromise. >> we are not as divided as our politics suggest.

we are not as cynical as the pundits believe. we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states, we are and forever will be the united states of america. >> reporter: the president says he wants to meet with mitt romney to discuss how they can work together. it remains to be seen if romney, who has now lost two bids for the white house is still a credible spokesman for the republican party, or if republicans who remain in control of the house are willing to give up the tax increases mr. obama is demanding be a part of reducing the deficit. jenna: one big question answered, a lot of questions remain for the several weeks and months ahead. thank you. jon: one of those questions the foreign policy challenges that now face president obama. the iran nuclear standoff just one of them how that could affect the entire middle east. >> if barack obama is reelected iran will get nuclear weapons and so will saudi arabia, egypt

and turkey. jon: ambassador bolton will be here live with more analysis next. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] help brazil reduce its overall reliance on foreign imports with the launch of the country's largest petrochemical operation. ♪

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jon: a fox weather alert for you now. a nor'easter bearing down on the northeast bringing strong winds, snow and rain as areas hard hit by sandy get ready for the impact. janice dean is in the fox weather center and has more for us now. jd. >> reporter: oh, jon it's the worst news. if this was a run ever the mill nor'easter we'd say yeah we can deal with this. but the coastline is vulnerable. trees are vulnerable. homes are vulnerable all along the area that is going to get hit by this nor'easter. already we are getting some snow. snow reports across atlantic city and then up towards jfk airport getting reports of snow. connecticut, much of parts of southern connecticut in towards

central connecticut getting find of a mix snow flakes. we'll see some mixing. freezing rain and/or sleet is going to make the drive home very dangerous. if you live across the northeast corridor you need to be paying close attention to the weather forecast and expect a slow ride home, and of course, again, across new york city we are already crippled with our transit system, so this is going to be a long haul. the next 24 to 36 hours. rain heavy at times. wind gusts, sometimes exceeding 65 miles per hour depending how far inland the storm moves in. heavy snow for the interior and mountains. that could change, jon. one of the har december things to forecast is the no totals. they could go up or down. the one thing is for certain the area is so vulnerable and we'll see more reports of power outages. i talked to my husband they are core dong off some of the trees in the neighborhood because they think they are going to come down with this storm system. it's awful. jon: so many problems, people without power already and more

to come it sounds like. >> reporter: we'll try to keep you up to date as best as we can. jon: janice dean thank you. jenna: the president with a host of foreign policy challenges ahead of him in his second term from the crisis in syria and fears that could spread elsewhere in the mideast to the race to stop iran from getting nuclear weapons, plus concerns about the upcoming withdrawal of u.s. and nato troops from afghanistan and the potential impact that could have on our already shaky relationship with pakistan. a lot to watch in the world today. ambassador john bolton is joining us, former ambassador to the u.n. and a fox news contributor. you say today our adversaries are breathing a sigh of relief, why? >> i think they have sized up president obama during his first term. they've seen he's a weak, inch attentive leader. they are not going to wait around for us to get our economic house in order. i think almost certainly during his second term that the pace and the scope of challenges that the united states will face will

accelerate. jenna: why? >> you've named some of them. because they see a president who doesn't really concern himself with foreign affairs, who doesn't see, for example, iran's continuing progress toward nuclear weapons as the threat that it is. you have president putin who has already congratulated president obama on his re-election, undoubtedly thinking of the famous conversation with former president, russian president medevev about how flexible president obama will be after the re-election. now it's come to pass. why shouldn't they be happy. jenna: let's think about what you would say to the president -- you're laughing. you can't take him off the screen when you get a laugh from the ambassador. you're called in to advice the president, we've seen the last four years he wants to make a change for the next four years, where would you point him as his number one priority and how would you advice him? >> well i think the most urgent priority is the progress that

iran continues to make towards nuclear weapons. the most likely outcome at this point is that iran will get nuclear weapons. in fact just about the only thing between iran and crossing that finish line is the possibility of an israeli strike. if iran gets nuclear weapons the secretary of state clinton has already said almost certainly many other countries in the region will as well, and, therefore, the threat of nuclear proliferation there and increasingly around the world will make it a much more dangerous place. that's why the focus on stopping iran is so important, and the fact is that president obama for four years has held to the illusion that he can negotiate with iran and somehow stop that nuclear threat. he has precious little time left, if any, really to troy and change course. jenna: some say six to mine months, maybe, maybe at most. some also suggest ambassador bolton that the president will not want to have the legacy of being the president that allowed

the middle east to arm up. how do you think that could play into some of his decisions? >> well then one should have what has he been doing the past four years? i think the real feeling inside the white house is that of course it would be a bad thing for iran to get nuclear weapons, but as undesirable as that would be we can live with a nuclear iran, because we can contain and deter the ayatollahs as we contained and deterred the soviet union during the cold war. i think that is delusional. i think their calculus in teheran is tiff rent from moscow's calculus during the cold war. even if i'm wrong, as i said earlier the fact is it doesn't stop with iran, other regimes seeing iran with a nuclear capability get their own and therefore the middle east descends into even greater risk and volatility than it has now. jenna: that's the bigger picture and one we'll continue to talk about many times.

ambassador. you let us know if you get a call from the president by the way. >> i will. jenna: thank you, sir. jon: the fascinating result of a senate race in maine, angus king is heading to washington filling the seat of olympia snowe. he's not a democrat, not a republican, what does he do?

jenna: democrats held on to the majority in the senate last night. republicans hold onto the house. not much has changed really, right? that's raising some concerns today about four more years of par ta so part son partisan fighting. there is one senator headed to capitol hill and he's not tied to bo one party. his name is angus king.

he's taking the seat of olympia snowe who decided not to run for office because she is sick of the partisan ship. he's joining us on the phone from free port, maine. congratulations on a race run. >> thank you very much. it was long and difficult at times but came out well in the end. i'm feeling good about it. the answer to your question of why in the world would i get involved. jenna: sure, right. >> is you gave it -- you gave the answer in the question. i ran for the mirror image of the reason olympia snowe left. i just can't sit by and see one of our great institutions locked up and not working because we've got some real problems in this country, and unless we start talking to each other and finding some common ground, it's the public, it's the people that end up suffering and that's what i did as an independent governor and i hope i can nudge the senate in that direction in

washington. jenna: how? >> well, it's really a question of trying to talk to both sides. i'm going to start -- the first meeting i'm going to have this week hopefully will be with olympia snowe. she called me last night and i'll sit down and talk to her and get some feelings for it. the other piece is to reach out to some of the senators on both sides, and you know the group i'm going to start with, jenna, is former governors. jenna: really? >> yeah, because there is a little group there, half a dozen or so, several of whom i worked with when i was in office, and former governors know that you can't do things with just one party. they always have to work with both parties in their legislatures, and they are also action oriented. they like to get things done. i think some of my first calls will be to people like lamar alexander from tennessee, and john carper from delaware who i know pretty well. i think there is a message.

i don't know if you put the numbers on your screen but i won well over 50% in a six-way race, and the margin was over 20 points, and i think the people of maine are saying, look, we want people to start working together. and i think that is the message around the country. jo it's an interesting strategy that you're mentioning, reaching out to some of the governors. there is one quite frankly we haven't heard much about. we'll be interested to follow that closely and see how that turns out as well. i've been following your race as of late admittedly, as you've garnered more attention in the national press, and every time from the "associated press," any of the news outlets that writes but say he's an independent, but you know he's really a democrat. he's going to caucus with the democrats, he's an independent but really a democrat. >> it would come as quite a surprise to the democrats in maine. when i was governor i worked with both sides, i was an equal opportunity guy with a veto pen. my bills in the legislature i

think i had 800 sponsored by democrats and 750 by republicans. i really do try to work with both sides, and that's been -- during one glorious six-week period i had both parties picketing my office and i thought maybe i've got that thing right. jenna: that sounds like a scene that would suggest that, bipartisanship in one way. >> exactly. jenna: a quick final question. i was reading a little bit about your history, two terms as governor as an independent and i understand after the -- the day after you got out of office you took two of your four children and your wife and you put everybody in a motor home and you traveled the country for six months. and i just wanted to ask you a little bit about that, because this is a day where half of the country is disappointed with the outcome. why do you think we should continue to have hope? >> well, i think one reason we should have hope and i sure had it here in maine yesterday, we had a huge turn out in this election. i think what that tells you is that even though people are

frustrated and angry and unease buy the economy they still believe in the system. they still believe in going out and expressing themselves. and you know what, president kennedy after the cuban missile crisis said a great thing. he said these are human problems we have and they were caused by humans and that means humans can solve them, and i think we can, and really we've got to get over this idea that you can't compromise, though. i mean i've never met anybody who has all the answers, and that means collectively you make better decisions. that's the way i'd like to see it work. jenna: that means you never met anyone who worked in television, because people in tv think they have all the answers. >> yeah, i'm sorry there is that. jenna: i know you were a tv host at one time, you probably understand that. >> yes. jenna: senator king, congratulations again. we look forward to this being the first of many conversations we have with you. >> i look forward to it as well, and i hope we can have some good discussions, because we've got to do something for the

country. jenna: we look forward to it sir, thank you very much. >> thank you. jon: i have all the answers and you never let me share them with you. jenna: i almost said jon scott had all the answers but i was trying to be, you know, less specific, pass the blame to everybody. jon: i appreciate that. the presidential race is over but in the key battleground state of florida it is still too close to call. the latest on the count there. plus now that president obama won, what does it mean for the gop? do they need to break down the grand old party and rebuild it? a fair & balanced debate coming up. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it... in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy.

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jenna: well the election may be over but we're still awaiting the official outcome of the race in the battleground state of florida. as of this morning, 99% of votes have already been counted but despite that election officials say the race is simply still too close to call. phil keating is live in tampa with more for us now. hi, phil. >> reporter: hi, jenna. the countying of ballots and tallying of votes continues this morning in the state of florida at 8.3 million ballots cast yesterday. president obama currently leading governor romney by just .7%. that is 46,000 votes. now voter lines and waits lasted long and for hours yesterday and into the night especially in south florida. in fact, one miami-dade woman did not cast her vote until finally, at 1:00 a.m..

but still being processed, tens of thousands of absentee ballots submitted yesterday in nine counties. and then over the next two or three days, per the state elections division, perhaps another 40,000 or so provisional ballots will still be counted. statewide florida voting like this. northern florida, panhandle, desays sievely voted for romney as expected. south florida, giving obama double-digit victory margins. that is miami-dade, broward and palm beach counties. and the heavily fought for and critical central florida corridor, the i-4 corridor, as it did in 2008, this year it went for obama. both campaigns knew this 12 mile stretch wins or loses this big battle frowned state. in pinellas county, around st. pete, tampa's hillsborough county, orlando's orange county and osceola county they all went for obama despite polling by the "tampa bay times" and "miami herald" in last week

showing romney would win the crucial i-4 corridor by 6 percentage points. i-4 corridor voted for republican candidates in seven of the past 10 presidential elections. obama won it twice in '08 and 12. there has been a surge of puerto ricans, central and south americans in central florida. certainly helped the president. after all of these still outstanding ballots are tabulated, it does appear very unlikely that governor romney could perhaps overcome the current lead by president obama, which is now 46,000,039 votes. it is close -- 46,039. votes. it is still close here in florida. jenna: thanks, phils for some great context. jon: this morning in the aftermath of the election there are all kinds of questions about the future of the gop after president obama's re-election victory. some say the republican party has a of work to do to keep up with the changing demographics with this

country. let's talk about it with juan williams. political analyst. and mary katharine ham, hotair.com. also a fox news contributor. juan, pick florida, for instance, which don't know where that state will ultimately end up, take, florida, virginia, colorado, nevada, those are states that used to be reliably conservative and seem to have gone into the, well, they all went into the obama category this time. we don't know about florida yet. you change those around, you have got a different president. what happened? >> well i think in large part it was the presence of the latino vote as a significant bloc, jon. i think this is part of the changing face of america in general and population. but in the specific context of last night's election it is the changing face of the american electorate. you take a state like florida, you know, used to be, you would think, it is cuban-americans. now as we heard, puerto ricans, people coming from all over latin america. they are not reliably

republican voters. in fact, last night, cuban-americans went for romney but the rest of that latino population, way outnumbered them and went heavily for president obama. and you know this is reflected then in questions like, you know, which candidate cares about people like me? which candidate is going to reflect my interests, and for hispanics who were one percentage point more in turnout than than they were in '08, the answer was overwhelmingly, barack obama. jon: mary katherine, hispanics tend to be socially conservative. does the republican party have no appeal? >> i think there is an appeal to be made not being made. obama ran i think not a feel good campaign that ended up being good enough. the reason it was good enough largely because of the some of these demographic switches and shifts in these swing states. i think the gop has known this is a growing problem for them, but, that is

actually one of the reasons rove and bush worked together during bush's term to try to get comprehensive immigration reform done. they felt that was the place for these voters. but they have known it is coming for a while. they thought they could sort of stave it off. i thought the electorate would look like a mix between 2010 and 2008 then it did in 2008. it ended up in 2008. fewer men, fewer white voters. fewer independents. so barack obama was able to build this firewall growing within hispanic voters and black voters in these important states, which meant that he could lose independents in a place like ohio or tie independents in wisconsin. it is very, it is a problem. jon: in a state like florida, i was astounded to read, juan, there are nearly a quarter million more hispanic and black voters in florida this time around than there were just four years ago. >> that's right. jon: that is where the president made real inroads. >> that was, that is a strategic, i'm so glad you pointed that out, jon. i think that is insightful

for people watching to understand. that it wasn't just, that the president went back and got the 2008 numbers from the same group of people. there were more of those voters, latinos, blacks, but also young women. young people and he therefore was able to tap into an increasing pool of voters. so if you think about it, again, it was older white, voters, over65, overwhelmingly for romney. younger people, of all colors you about heavily of minority, heavily for barack obama. one of those groups is leading the electorate. the other is pushing into their middle years in greater power in the electorate. that is why the republican party is going to have to figure out how to deal with this strategically, or find themselves pushed out, in all the upcoming presidential races. jon: mary katherine, give me 20 second answer to a four-year question. how do they fix this? >> well i think, the good

news on the bench, sort of rising stars of the republican party, marco rubio, ted cruz in the senate. nikki haley in south carolina. women and minorities, suzanna martinez who will be needed to communicate this message and have to do it with a friendly face and i think are capable of doing that. many of them very good politicians. it is not easy because john mccain and george bush probably put more on the line politically for immigration reform i think than barack obama. this is where the tide is leading. there is appeal to be made. it has to be made, you have to go to those voters and there hasn't been enough of that going on. jon: mary katharine ham, juan williams, good discussion. thank you. >> have a good day, jon. jon: you too. jenna: one of the questions we're asking tonight what does the win for the president really mean for the country's financial crisis? big decisions are coming up soon. we talked a little bit about the fiscal cliff already. that is last night. here is what things look like this morning on the stock market. the market down more than 300 points.

dow, all sectors of s&p lower. main sectors, financial and energy, ones thought to be potentially hardest hit by the president's policies are down the most of the we'll talk about all of this with steve moore from "the wall street journal" next.

jenna: this fox news alert. show you what is happening with the dow. down more than 2 1/2%, more than 300 points. the premarkets looked bad but not necessarily like this. a few hours left to go in the trading day. here is where we stand the morning the markets wake up to president-elect barack obama. current president. steve moore, seniors economics writer for "the wall street journal", author of, who is the fairest of them all the? is this about the election. >> this was not price into the market. nobody knew 24 hours ago who would win this election. this is reaction to the election.

a question, whether one day-downer or whether it is the beginning of a trend. jenna: some investors are quoted saying, we could see next week a market rally come back from this. this might be temporary. >> sure. politics does play a role but earnings is always the most important thing when it comes to the stock market. the real question i think investors are asking and consumers and businesses, what's going to happen now with this budget situation, the fiscal cliff, the "taxmageddon"? all these things are completely up in the air right now. jenna: when we talk about the fiscal cliff, we use it like everybody knows it. fiscal cliff, there it is. the fiscal cliff is these automatic tax hikes and automatic spending cuts. >> that's right. spending cuts. jenna: all the money comes out of the economy with spending cuts. you would have a certain group of economy hurt by higher taxes. some suggestion that combination could cause recession. >> let's go through this. you're right it is a little complicated. first you have got the tax increases. president obama won the election. look i told people i would

raise the top tax rates. he will have a case to say i have a voter mandate to do this we'll see how hard republicans fight that. by the way, jenna, i want people to understand, those tax kriens increases automatically go in january 1st unless the law changes. there will be a brawl on taxes. the other component of the fiscal cliff, which is the spending cuts. that means, about $110 billion of cuts, half out of the military budget and half out of the domestic budget. now i happen to think, maybe we haven't cut spending in four years in this town. we had huge increases. maybe a cut in spending might not be such a bad thing right now. jenna: what do you think the republicans potentially should put on the table as far as some tax increase the in the spirit of compromise? >> remember, president obama saying i want to raise taxes on anybody that made over $200,000. let the taxes fall for people below that. i think my best guess, talking to congressional us sos last 24 hours.

i think they will strike some kind of deal on taxes. republicans won't be happy with that deal. some taxes on capital gains on dividends and small businesses are going up. you have got the spending issue. i think that will be a big brawl. i'm not so sure that will get settled anytime soon. jenna: quick final question. >> yeah. jenna: 2 dal billion spent on the election and we got pretty much exactly the same result. >> amazing. >> does that mean politics is a bad investment? >> i know a lot of conservatives saying that, there were major, super pacs spent hundreds of millions of dollars, you have to wonder what did we get in return for that? what was the total, like five or six billion spent on this election. let's not forget, jenna, we have a $4 trillion federal budget. in the grand, by the way, $6 billion spent on elections, that is maybe what mcdonald's spends on big macs advertising every few weeks. put it in --. jenna: sounds like a lot of money for the average joe.

good context for steve as well. steve, great to see you. a lot of conversation ahead for sure, jon? jon: worth pointing out of the all gets spent in this country, the economic multiplier and all. parts of the northeast really from sandy are getting ready for another brutal storm and it could affect folks in the rest of the country as well, with flights already canceled and airlines now warning of major delays. here we go again. many of my patients clean their dentures with toothpaste. i tell them dentures are very different to real teeth. they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can grow and multiply. polident is specifically designed to clean dentures daily. its unique micro-clean formula kills 99.9% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains, cleaning in a better way than brushing with toothpaste. that's why i recommend using polident. [ male announcer ] polident. cleaner, fresher, brighter every day.

jon: a fox news alert. if you're watching us now in central america or mexico you might know that there has been an earthquake there. buildings rattled in mexico city. this was off the coast of guatemala. guatemala city, the closest major city to the epicenter.

7.5 magnitude quake off the country's pacific coast. that according to the u.s. geological survey. no word on damage or casualties yet. no word on any kind of a tsunami warning. that will depend on what happened on the ocean floor. we're watching story very closely. buildings were shaking in mexico city. this is large earthquake. 7.5. we'll bring you update as they come into the newsroom. jenna: major airlines are canceling flights into and out of the new york city area. a huge international hub of course. this coming ahead of the second significant storm in a little more than a week. rick has more on this now, rick? >> jenna, 24,000 flights were canceled because of sandy last week. the airlines not taking any chances with this new storm on its way. already flights are being canceled all over the northeast. starting tomorrow at noon, united suspending most of its service. the airlines warning customers that the nor'easter will cause delays and cancellations all over

the place. american airlines, well they're going to try and fly until 3:00 tomorrow afternoon. they will see about that. and flights in and out of philly are stopping at noon tomorrow. major carriers, delta, jetblue, asking people to change their flights to a later date. the fees that are usually charged for doing that are being waved. waived. you don't have to worry about the 150 bucks. if you have travel plans outside of the country in the northeast, you're not immune to this. expect there to be a ripple effect all over. bottom line if you have any travel, any flightses planned, call the airlines about you head to the airport. jenna: great tip for us. rick, thank you. jon: we know who america voted for last night but do the final results match up with the exit polls? the answer might surprise you. plus a potentially devastating nor'easter on track to hit a battered northeast. rick was just talking about it. coming up how it could

affect a already heavily criticized response to hurricane sandy.

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i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. jenna: a fox news alert before high noon here on the east coast. you see the dow trending lower by more than 300 points. yes, we are still focused on this election and what it means for the future of this country and the economy, but that's not the only thing playing into the market. over in europe there is the increasing concern that the economy is shrinking over there, and high unemployment is going to stay in the e.u. for years to come. those are some projections just hitting the market today. you know that's not good news for us here at home that also have so many concerns, we do, about employment and whether or not our economy is growing. but today, postelection, the dow is trading lower by more than 300 points, more on this throughout the day here on fox news. >> reporter: rick folbaum in the control room, all new hour straight ahead. the thrill of victory for the

president, now the agony of reality. they're not even finished cleaning up the confetti in chicago, but they've got to deal with the fiscal cliff, the national debt, the benghazi scandal, what hurdles lie ahead for barack obama. we'll explore that. and the day after election day, take a look at capitol hill. looks pretty much the same, right? no shift whatsoever in the balance of power, so what about gridlock? will it go away? should it go away? we'll explore that as well. and what a mess at polling places all over the country, long waits, broken machines, a mural of the president in philadelphia. our voter fraud unit all over the place yesterday. we'll tell you what they found. all of that and breaking news as the second hour of "happening now" starts right now. jenna: great stories that rick just teed up for us. in the meantime, the big story of the day is that the president is promising the best is yet to come now that he's reelected. after winning four more years in the white house, he says he's

going to work with leaders of both parties to tackle our nation's biggest problems. we welcome you to the second hour of "happening now," i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. let's hope the president is right, right? voters giving president obama a second chance to fix the economy, but it won't be easy. his margin of victory in the popular vote was smaller than in 2008, and he is still facing a divided congress. the series of victories in the battleground states pushing president obama over the top in the electoral college. in his victory speech, the president thanked everyone who voted even if they voted for governor romney. [applause] >> and whether i earned your vote or not, i have listened to you, i have learned from you, and you've made me a better president. and with your stories and your struggles, i return to the white house more determined and more inspired than ever about the -- [cheers and applause] the future that lies ahead. jon: for his part, governor

romney -- sounding gracious in defeat -- calling on the nation to unite. >> i have just called president obama to congratulate him on his victory. his supporters and his campaign also deserve congratulations. i wish all of them well, but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters. this is a time of great challenges for america -- [applause] and i pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation. [applause] jon: fox news exit polling finding most voters think the country is heading in the wrong direction, and yet they gave the president a second term. maybe it's because of this: after four years under president obama, most still blame our current economic problems on president bush. charlie hurt is a columnist for the washington times. does that explain what happened last night, charlie? >> i think to some degree, it certainly does. because president obama's campaign, you know, four years after running the most positive,

soaring, hopeful campaign ran a very, very determinedly negative campaign and very much made the campaign about, you know, george bush and blaming everything on george bush. and apparently, even though a lot of us in the media sort of kind of groaned over hearing over and over and over again about the president that left office four years ago, apparently he did -- it was an effective strategy, and it actually kind of worked a little bit. jon: when ronald reagan took office, things were worse than they are, or than they were when president obama took over, but reagan did something different with the economy, and, you know, people rewarded him with a second term. >> i'm absolutely astonished by the results from last night. you know, given the environment and given the high unemployment, the massive debt and the massive systemic challenges that, you know, fiscal challenges that we

face that it didn't turn out to be a huge renunciation of president obama and the policies of just kind of sitting around, but the upshot of last night was you have half the country that says it's time that we deal with these massive problems, and you have a little bit more than half the country that just says, nah, we don't feel like dealing with them right now. we are going to have to deal with them eventually, and it's only going to get uglier the longer we put that off. jon: yeah. we're headed toward on the current path, what, $22 trillion in debt in four years? >> yeah, if, in fact, we do continue this. and remember, you know, president obama vowed in 2008 that he was going to cut the debt in half, and instead he added, you know, five, six trillion to the bottom line. and so it's sort of hard to -- you know, i was interested in his remarks last night about saying that the best is yet to come. well, we would have liked to have seen some of that in the

first four years. but maybe, maybe he really is serious this time, and the best really will be to come, i don't know. jon: yeah. so where go republicans and conservatives? i mean, is this a message that they need to get onboard with tax increases and that kind of thing? >> i certainly don't think that republicans particularly in the house derived that message from last night. we ended up with republicans maintaining control of the house handily, democrats maintaining control of the senate and obama main maintaining control of the white house. nothing changed last night, and president obama said that, you know, that he returns with more determined and more energized to basically keep doing what he was already doing. so i don't know who's going to budge. and, obviously, republicans are going to have to -- i do think that with john boehner, house speaker john boehner is now the single most powerful voice in the republican party. he is going to have to come up with a, you know, some sort of,

you know, strategy for, you know, trying to change things. but i don't think that agreeing to tax cuts or agreeing to, you know, sell out conservative voters is going to be the way that things work out well. jon: mitch mcconnell, the minority leader in the senate, was blasted by democrats for saying that he wanted to see, or he wanted to make his priority seeing president obama remain a one-term president, but he also in that same speech talked a lot about the fact that the president hadn't reached out to republicans and hadn't acted in a bipartisan way. is there a lesson here for the president? >> well, there certainly is a lesson here. whether he got it, i don't know. because he in that speech last night he certainly didn't say that he was humbled by the election. he certainly didn't say, you know, when he said i listened to you, he didn't say that that means he was going to actually in real terms try to work with republicans. and then, of course, last week we had harry reid -- it wasn't

even one of these crazy speeches that harry reid gives, it was actually in a prepared statement, he called it a fantasy or some word like that to suggest that he was going to actually work with republican, a republican president. jon: sounds like a recipe for four more years of gridlock -- >> yes. jon: we'll see what happens. charlie hurt from the washington times, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: we'll look ahead to in the news today, also looking still at this election process. ohio playing a pivotal role in the calling the election for president obama. election officials confirming legal votes were cast in the key battle ground state. what does this mean now? senior correspondent eric shawn is live in cleveland with more. eric? >> reporter: hi, jenna. well, a tired election official this morning troubleshooting the problems that went wrong such as long lines, machines that were broken, scanners that did not scan as well as other problems. voters telling us, for example, that when they showed up to

vote, they were told they had already voted. that was not true, they said. in one case here in ohio, voters telling us that they had absentee ballots filled out in their names with wrong signatures. all that potentially under investigation, and, yes, they confirmed that there were illegal votes cast in yesterday's presidential election here in ohio. it happened in hamilton county, that's where the hamilton county board of elections at cincinnati tells us some voters at one polling place just walked in, signed their names and cast their ballots illegally even though they weren't registered to vote. the deadline to register in this state was october 9th, but apparently two election judges allowed some voters to do that. one a republican, one a democrat were replaced by others. observers caught this and shows that, yes, the system can work in catching potential fraud. activists concerned about the number of provisional ballots outstanding in this state, more

than 200,000. people walk in, show up, they don't have the right information, so they have to vote provisionally. they have ten days to prove who they are. look at the numbers. more than 100,000 votes separate president obama and mitt romney, but there are or more than double that number of provisionals that haven't been counted, more than 30,000 here in chi hoe georgia county. one official told me they look for irregularities in the provisionals and say, yes, people do try to vote twice. they find that in every election. and also new concern this morning about military voters. members of the military telling us they never got their absentee ballots. the voter assistance protection project tells us the numbers appear to be way down. in virginia, 25 percent fewer military members voting compared to 2008, and here in ohio they say that number cut as much as 50 percent, half the number of military members who were not able to vote in this election yesterday compared to four years

ago. the pentagon says they do not track those numbers, it's up to the state. all that still being compiled. and, of course, if you had problems at the polls or suspect voter fraud where you live, here's our address: voterfraud@foxnews.com, and, jenna, we are still getting the e-mails from people around the country who encountered problems. jenna: real quick though, the list that you mentioned, any of that could cause a problem for the results, or are the results just what they are and this is what happens postelection in a state like ohio? >> reporter: well, basically, the results are what they are. those 200,000 provisionals, they go through those, and it does not seem that they would change the result here in ohio based on the voting trends. but we won't know, because they don't start to count those until ten days from now. jenna: interesting. eric, thank you. jon: so, as you just heard from eric, it all comes down to ohio and, indeed, this race did. the president's bailout of the auto industry playing big with voters in that state.

fox news exit poll finding almost six in ten ohio voters approved of the federal bailout of u.s. automakers, and among those 75% support president obama. 24% going for governor romney. mike tobin is live in columbus, ohio, now with more. mike? >> reporter: and, jon, to take your auto bailout point a step further, you look at the county-by-county breakdown in ohio, most of the state shows up red. mitt romney won most of the real estate in ohio, the president won the population centers, particularly in the northern part of the state. that's where the manufacturing is done, that's where the auto parts are made, that's where all the points about the auto bailout really hit home. there's another point that can't be ignored out here, and that's a court ruling that really seemed to contribute to the outcome. republicans here in ohio and the republican secretary of state wanted to close early voting in the weekend leading up to the election. the court said they couldn't do it. it was a big part of the democrats' ground game not just to get out the vote, but to get

out the early vote. and we saw over the weekend the lines streaming out the door, people waiting in line two hours to cast a ballot between saturday and monday. there were 96,700 ballots cast. jon? jon: wow. mike tobin in columbus, thank you. jenna: while there are some new faces on capitol hill, republicans retain their majority in the house, and the democrats still control the senate. so with the house and senate still divided, is there any hope for compromise? is past precedent? we'll talk about that. and a nor'easter is taking aim at the same region devastated by hurricane sandy. how bad will it get? the latest news, next. my doctor told me calcium is efficiently absorbed in small continuous amounts. citracal slow release continuously releases calcium plus d with efficient absorption in one daily dose. citracal slow release.

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jenna: right now a look at the congress that is still divided today, entering right now tuesday's election republicans

held a 240-190 advantage. over in the senate democrats had a 53-47 advantage including two independents who caucus with them. well, now this is what things look like. with the polls closed in all states, our counts showing republicans holding 231 seats in the house, 14 seats remain undecided. but, again, with the 218 needed for majority, the gop holds the house no matter what. in the senate right now, democrats have at least 51 seats, again, two independents likely to caucus with them. two races remaining unconfirmed. the associated press just reporting john tester winning re-election in montana, but still the democrats firmly in control of the senate. so we have a divided house and senate, what we had before. lots of things ahead that are new. molly henneberg has more for us from washington. molly? >> reporter: hi, jenna. even if the democrats do win

that final race in north dakota, they still will not have the 60-vote filibuster-proof majority and, therefore, will have to negotiate with senate republicans. top senate democrat harry reid is speaking to reporters this hour, he's breathing a sigh of relief today. democrats were defending 23 seats last night. republicans were defending 10, and democrats have increased their senate majority by at least one, maybe two depending on that north dakota race. some very visible faces -- races went to democrats, missouri senator claire mccaskill, considered very vulnerable this go round, kept her seat after her opponent, todd akin, made controversial comments about rape, and in indiana joe donnelly defeeted richard mourdock who also made controversial comments about rape. and as far as the republican side, senate republicans are pointing to a couple of significant wins. ted cruz in texas, that state's first hispanic senator, and he's a tea party favorite as well. and deb fisher in nebraska, she picked up a gop seat in that

state that had been held by retiring democratic senator ben nelson. over in the house as we were saying, jenna, republicans will retain control which means john boehner will keep his job as speaker of the house. he's expected to speak later today on the way forward in gridlocked washington, but he made of saying last night that voters kept the gop in control of the house which suggests to him that they don't want the government to raise their taxes. and as far as the minority leader, it will be up to house democrats to decide if nancy pelosi will keep that job. but it's not over for the current, now-lame duck congress. when they return to town, they'll be under enormous pressure to come to a debt deal before $400 billion of automatic new taxes and $100 billion in automatic defense and domestic program cuts hit in january. and, jenna, as you know, that's the so-called fiscal cliff. jenna: an interesting couple weeks ahead. molly, thank you. jon: we saw a lot of folks standing in very long voting

lines on this election day. one way to take a load off, head out on horseback. justice roy moore going to the polls in style. he and his entourage taking a different mode of transportation to the polls. judge moore made headlines a few years back when the state kicked him out of office because he posted the ten commandments in his courtroom. last night he beat his opponent and won back the position of chief justice in that state. jenna: do you think the horse had anything to do with it? jon: i think they like their men ruged in alabama. jenna: that's pretty cool. nice mode of transportation. well, breaking the gridlock on capitol hill is the top news story of them all. can president obama reach across the aisle and find common ground with the gop? we'll talk a little bit about that coming up next. and some laws against marijuana going up in smoke, as they say. where it's now legal to light up, next.

jenna: well, now this fox news alert. other than politics, we're watching this story. a giant earthquake rattling guatemala today. magnitude 7.4 at first reading here, struck off the country's pacific coast. that's according to the u.s. geological survey. trying to get some video and pictures to you, but we're hearing there are some building collapses, and we're still working on potential reports of injuries. right now we do not have any. apparently, this quake was felt as far north as mexico city, so really shaking quite a big area. so far no reports of a tsunami, but something we watch when we see an earthquake off the coast, and we're going to continue to bring you the latest updates as they come into our newsroom. jon? >> by itself the recognition

that we have common hopes and dreams won't end all the gridlock or solve all our problems or substitute for the pain staking work of building consensus. jon: well, now that he has won a second term, president obama faces an urgent task. he's calling on congress to make some difficult choices to head off another financial crisis. economists warn the so-called fiscal cliff coming at the first of the year could plunge the country back into recession unless both sides can agree on a solution. but the president still faces a deeply-divided congress where gridlock seems to be a way of life these days. republican leaders agree there's a mandate for both sides to find common ground and work together, but one report or today notes, quote: tuesday's election left republicans in control of the house and democrats in charge of the senate, but the political winds have shifted with no obama re-election battle looming, there isn't the same incentive for each side to demonize the other. whether there is a newfound

ability to cooperate will be put to to the test just about immediately. let's talk about it with lanny davis, white house counsel during the clinton administration, andrea tantaros, co-host of "the five" here on fox. what are your predictions? is there going to be a love fest when these elected, reelected, newly-elected folks get to washington, lanny? >> let me think about that. no. [laughter] they're adversarial positions. the difference is that obama now has the ability to pivot to the center in terms of looking for consensus. as you heard him say last night and as i predicted, he's no longer running for re-election, as you pointed out, he's running for history. and he, therefore, can afford to stand up to his base and reach out to thoughtful conservative republicans in the congress to find a consensus position. jon: are you saying we're likely to see a less liberal barack obama in this second term? >> this is the key concept.

you can remain a liberal. bill clinton is a liberal democrat, but he worked with newt gingrich to find a consensus. didn't mean he wasn't a liberal. he looked for consensus and left a trillion dollar surplus. there is a way of maintaining your principles but finding compromise. that's what's been dissing the last -- missing the last four years. jon: i think i just saw the first flicker of a smile across andrea's face all morning. do you see that happening? >> no. i was actually going to laugh. it wasn't a smile of happiness, it was a smile of disbelief. i think the president had an opportunity to come to the middle, and he didn't do that. boehner put an offer on the table, he had an opportunity to do that centrist pivot that bill clinton did. he's not bill clinton. he wants to run as a leftist. and i have to say this, listening to everybody talk about what went wrong last night, obama created a new paradigm in american politics. dependency politics. we spent almost a trillion dollars, and look what we got; more food stamps u more medicaid.

the country is turning into a socialized, eastern european country. women voted over jobs for birth control. this is what happens. it's very seductive to give people free stuff, and frankly, republicans aren't that much better if you look at the eight years before. jon: you almost got a chuckle out of lanny there. your former boss ended welfare as we know it. >> i love watching you on "the five," and i really respect you greatly -- >> now comes an insult. >> there's always a but. to use labels about socialism, let's just talk facts. the health care bill, fact: entirely private insurance system. no public option, not even any government option. all private insurance. barack obama in his second term can do what bill clinton did, fact, which is to reach out to the republican center-right, and i'm talking john mccain, orrin hatch, lindsey graham and what i posted on fox news last night. there are thoughtful republicans willing to find solutions.

we'll see if my optimism is -- >> let me just talk fact. when reagan was in office, 29% of the country was dependent on government. now 49% of the country is. it is tough to take that back, jon, and that was the obama campaign's calculus from the beginning; get more people dependent, and then when you try and take it away, you lose elections. there's no gop trick to fix this. it's not going to be courting latino voters or somehow maybe getting the media to be more favorable. it's not going to work. we have entered a new paradigm in politics, and i think it's tough to reverse. >> so we're going to have solutions to this fiscal cliff, and when people use these expressions without backing them up by facts, dependent on the government and that statistic -- >> lanny -- >> excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. i didn't interrupt you. on the panel you interrupt, let me finish. social security, people pay into. that number that she just mentioned are social security resip credibilities that we all

paid into dependent on the government. give me a break. >> no one wanted to talk about social security, jon. >> i gave you a fact. i gave you a fact. >> and that is the reason why. when you talk about actual fiscal responsibility, you lose elections. >> you see the red/blue -- >> that's the fact. >> -- disagreement here? jon: yes, i guess -- >> i think obama and mitch mcconnell will do better than we just did. jon: we will see. >> i doubt it. jon: andrea, good luck with bob beckel tonight. >> i love the show. jenna: you have time. you have a couple hours to get prepared. >> do some yoga. [laughter] jenna: we were just talking about it there, the 2012 election is going to go down as the priciest in history. where did all the money go? we'll break down new numbers on how the candidates spent tons and tons of cash. also some superstorm sandy victims are bracing for a new round of severe weather, some bad timing here. the nor'easter's already forcing evacuations, already forcing

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canceling flights ahead of this latest storm. janice dean is very busy live in the fox news extreme weather center. janice. >> another night of subfreezing temperatures for people who don't have power. unfortunately this is going to cause more power outages and more trees down and more power lines down as the cities are very fragile from sandy. as you can see we're seeing mix of everything. rain, sleet, freezing rein and snow. philadelphia are you could get six to 8:00 inches of snow. much new jersey right now filling in with snow. getting reports of snow and rain and freezing rain around the new york city area. then up towards connecticut, and boston, you're starting to see that snow move in. this will be a good 12-hour event as we look at the future radar. we'll see a mixture of snow and rain and freezing rain. unfortunately will be a really bad commute home. perhaps if you're traveling in early tomorrow morning, just, you know, pack your patience as they say. then we'll see the lingering winds as we head into thursday and friday. here is one of the forecast

models did. a widespread area of three to six inches including in and around the new york city area. and also the potential in interior sections for six to 12 inches. one of the hardest things to forecast is the snow line. so some areas could get a little more than we anticipated. other areas could get kind of a mixture of rain and snow. so that will cut back on the snow totals. wind of the ifs again along the coastline, along this battered coastline where we don't have the dunes, natural protection along the jersey shore as well as long island, southern connecticut, but i will be battered again by a by a wind event next 12 to 24 hours. trees without leaves and snow will cause more power outage. people that got the power back on, that might go out again. lows, overnight, very, very cold for all those folks. hundreds of thousands still without power. back to you. jon: awful news, janice.

>> it really is. jon: thank you. >> okay. jenna: they're still counting absentee ballots in florida. even without florida we know the president has enough folks for victory in the electoral college. here are results in the battleground states we're talking so much about in the last several months. president obama claiming every nearly single one except north carolina. you see the outlyer there in red. florida still remains too close to call. as we mentioned the outcome won't decide the race, won't impact results. but you can see from the map that president obama was ahead in key areas in the south and along the i-4 corridor. steve boske, tallahassee bureau chief for the "tampa bay times". you talked about turnout. potentially a historic election for florida. what strikes you most now the day after? >> well, what strikes me the fact that the ground game really was there for the democrats, especially in the i-4 corridor. in everyone of the i-4 counties except one, barack obama either defeated

mitt romney or ran a virtual dead heat. there is a lot of talk nationally about the importance of hillsborough county which is where tampa is located as a bellwether county. it proved to be again in the election in florida. the i-4 corridor is where these elections are won and lost. jenna: here we are again paying close attention to that, steve. still awaiting results. we see in florida all the conversation about who is able to vote when. the long lines that wrap around the blocks. we have video of that. we have been seeing that over the last couple days. why is it like this in florida? >> well, this is an issue that i think has been fairly demagogued by both political parties. there is still a lot of noise from the liberal side that the legislature cut early voting down too much. we went from 14 early voting days to eight in florida. and ending on the saturday before the election. but the lines you're showing are in orlando, but the longest of the lines were in

miami-dade where it appears that the supervisor of elections was not fully prepared for the onslaught of voters that she got down there. people were voting late into the night last night. jenna: even the president said, no, sorry to interrupt. even the president said last night when he was giving his speech something about the long lines. by the way, we got to fix that. is it possible to fix it, steve, in florida? >> i think it is but i think that there's going to be, it is a highly partisan issue here. because early voting now was very important to barack obama's first election in 2008. frankly early voting declined a little bit this time and more people, more and more people are voting absentee and by mail. that is the point that the republicans make in the legislature. it is very easy to vote in florida. people are not being disenfranchised. there is no voter suppression going on. i mean the republicans were making the point overnight if there is voter suppression going on how did obama win florida?

that is the question they ask. jenna: that is interesting question. i seem to remember the republicans also saying even though they cut down the days of early voting they extended hours. the hours were the same. days were shorter. highly partisan argument about voting in florida. we'll continue to watch for the result, steve. any anticipation when we will get those? >> i think you will have them shortly. but we had another situation here which is that the new election law required more people to vote provisionally, provisional ballot, especially college students transient between counties. the election supervisors are about to shift gears and start counting looking at provisional ballots. i don't think they will change outcome of any major race but they will tie up officials here for days. jenna: steve, thank you very much. >> thank you. jon: as the republican party takes stock last night of loss does the gop need to revent itself?

what went wrong? what do they do from here? answers coming up possibly. virginia senator joe manchin touts himself as an independent voice in the senate. we will ask the red state democrat what capitol hill can get done over the next four years as the house and senate remain divided. senator manchin coming up.

jon: well, governor romney won west virgina big last night while the state voted to give democrat joe manchin a new term in the senate. he scored nearly 60% of the vote compared to nearly 37% for his republican challenger. manchin did it campaigning as an independent voice often on the opposite side of issues from president obama. last night before the presidential race was decided senator manchin offered advice getting past party politics saying who is ever end up being president should immediately begin a

healing tour, going around the country and bringing it back together. newly reelected senator joe manchin joins us live from charleston, west virgina. sounds like a great idea. do you think president obama will take you up on that suggest? >> well, i would hope that they would consider that. i think the country has been divided far too long, jon. it is time to bring it back. the time to do that is for the leaders pulling us back together. i'm committed to moving with the president any way we can to move the country forward. all we're asking for a balanced approach with the economy, environment, energy policy that works for all of us. we have something to offer and it is time for us to rebuild america. jon: you yourself given the president heat on energy policy and especially coal and that kind of thing. are you expecting you might get the cold shoulder in washington. >> let me say we'll have a new chairman. that hopefully will be ron wyden, from oregon, very good friend of mine.

i brought him to west virginia. he understands the energy policy. our country desperately needs a energy policy that works. base load fuels of coal and natural gas, developing renewable as and continue to work for fuels of future. that is something we need to be more independent. i think we can do that. i'm hoping that the president will look to find a balance, that we, we have tried to offer in an energy policy. jon: both governor romney and the president gave very uplifting, soaring conciliatory speeches last night. but talk is cheap. do you really think that when you and all of those who have been reelected, and elected get to washington, can you really put your heads together and get this country moving forward? >> john, as you know i'm one of the most centrist and bipartisan senators in the senate. i have a lot of good colleagues. these are good people on both sides. we know we have to get the job done. i said this. my parents gave me better in this country than they got it. my grandparents gave it to

them. i'm determined to give it to my children better than i got it. that means we have to work together. i'm willing to work with both sides of the aisle, democrat or republican, conservative or liberal. put our country first. put politics behind us. this election has been over. we've been divided far too long, jon. it is time to rebuild america. you can only do it by bng an american. >> well, okay, so what do you say to your colleagues to get that going, to make it happen? >> i think, jon, i think they all heard the same thing i heard. not one of us on the trail that did not have the people come up to you every minute of every day, please can't you people just work together? can't you look at the problems we're facing? can't you come together? can't you get your financial house in order? we want jobs. can we not bring you are our people back home from the wars and rebuild america? that's what they have been telling us. we all heard it. let's go do it now. jon: that sounds good. senator joe manchin, newly reelected from west virginia. congratulations and thanks for joining us.

>> thanks, john and god bless america. jon: amen. jenna: a lot of work to be done this election cycle, staggeringly expensive as we've been talking about. the priciest in history in fact. with all the economic woes, still the priciest in history. kind of ironic. rick is here to break down the dollars and cents for us. rick? >> the number blows your mind. $6 billion is the prediction of the total amount of money spent on all the contests decided yesterday. what did it buy? for democratic donors it helped deliver barack obama for a second term. it helped them hang on the control of the senate. there was no turn back of the gop majority in the house. for republicans and donors to republican super pacs which poured so much outside money into races all over the place, there are a lot of people scratching their heads today. no doubt, linda mcmahon has spent 100 million dollars of her own fortune only to lose two connecticut senate bids in the last three years alone. casino magnet, sheldon adelson, maybe the biggest

individual donor this election year, spending tens of millions of dollars on republican candidates. the way it looks right now, none of them are going to win. thankfully for his heirs he has a few dollars left in his bank account. so much money. at the end of the day, $6 billion to influence a balance of power, jenna, that looks exactly the same today as it did yesterday. jenna: rick, thank you. jon: well, legalizing marijuana becomes a realty in several states. find out where you can now light up legally, maybe. >> will be a smoking a lot tonight. what! [ male announcer ] when these come together, and these come together,

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jon: well, john necessary has been telling you about this monster nor'easter that

is headed to the northeast of the look right now in philadelphia. this is sixth street, courtesy of our friends at wtxf. it is snowing in early november in philadelphia right now. big swath of the northeast will get hit by this storm. there you can see the flakes coming down. it is just not going to be pretty especially for those folks still without power dealing with the aftermath of hurricane sandy. what a mess. that is what it is. here it comes. really all around the country people will be affected because flights have been canceled at many northeastern airports. this big storm hitting now and expected to hit for another 12 hours or so. jenna: last night was one for the history books because it was a record night on social media. at a peak, more than 327,000 tweets were sent every minute. think about that. more than doubling the previous record for any political event. you can see some of the top

topics talked about in those election related tweets. the economy still remaining the number one conversation starter. take a look at spike in traffic over the evening as well. you can see a huge spike as races were called in total more than 41 million election related tweets were sent. another record for a day in politics. double what we saw in the first debate, which up until last night was the, the history-making night for politics. 20 million tweets in the first debate. now we're seeing double that, 41 million. here is the big spike when we started to call the race for the president last night. the president taking twitter quickly to the respond to calls he was reelected. for context the president sent his first tweet on election night in 2008. he went again sent another tweet last night. he said this. this is all we're in together, this is how we campaigned. that is who we are. he signed that bo. that is how we know it is from the president and not the campaign staff. right after he sent out the tweet the campaign sent out

the picture, it is file photo of him you hadding the first lady. it is the most retweeted tweet he ever sent. one of the mess retweeted treats twreets every out there. our brain room says 9,000 tweets were sent out by both campaigns the president outtweeted mitt romney, 8 to 1. whether or not that is a factor in the results we'll leave that to strategists. that is the history on social media. jon: i bet it will be bigger next time around, jenna. right now, marijuana and gay marriage are taking center stage on the ballot in several states. voters in places legalized the judge and same-sex marriage passing in three states. william la jeunesse breaks it all down for us from los angeles. william? >> reporter: well, jon, the big question now, what is the federal government going to do after colorado and washington become the first states to defy federal statutes and legalize marijuana? allowing people to grow and stores to tell up to an ounce to those over age 21?

the likely impact? lower prices and lower profits for the cartels. as colorado and washington ramp up production. but now, do more states legalize pot arguing fewer people in the jail system saves money? or do the feds step in, prosecuting users and growers and punishing the states by withholding highway money? >> under marijuana prohibition we're sending millions and millions of dollars into an underground market where it benefits cartels and gangs and other criminals when we could send millions of dollars into legitimate colorado businesses and producing tens of millions of dollars of tax revenue for our state. >> reporter: for the first time in the u.s., by popular vote, maryland, maine and washington approved gay marriage, prompting celebrations in several cities. in the past same-sex marriage was approved by the courts and state lawmakers. gay marriage is now legal in nine states but banned or prohibited in 41. which is why many expect this to be decided

ultimately by the supreme court. >> jubilation and finally we have justice for all of us. and it took everyone working together. coalitions of religious groups, of straight folks, everybody working together to make it happen. >> reporter: so the president says he supports gay marriage but opposes legalizing marijuana. the governor of colorado said last night, jon. be careful, because the voters spoken but you have to respect the federal law. don't start breaking out your cheetoes and goldfish too quickly. jon: william la jeunesse. thank you. and we'll be right back [ male announcer ] humana and walmart have teamed up

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jenna: four years can seem like a long time, but four years in the life of a family really, as jon can attest to, time flies. there's a look at sasha and malia in at that point in 2008, and look at them last